Leadership, “Reputation Matters,” Forbes, November 30, 2022

“Kind, creative, and smart is the motto at Snapchat…Looks like that went out of the window right away when things started going bad,” wrote one worker after CEO Evan Spiegel announced the layoffs of 1,200 employees this year.

As more and more tech layoffs are hitting before the holidays, the real question is — are empathy and “emotional intelligence” truly sustainable as business practices in bad times as well as good? Or have we just been paying them lip service?

Over the last year, TechCrunch estimates over 85,000 tech sector workers have been laid off from 35 companies, with more to come. Twitter, Meta, Amazon, Stripe and Salesforce have each adopted different strategies on how to do it. But none of them have gotten it “just right” yet. And some have gotten it mightily wrong. […read more]